ALLSTON: INTERIM REPORT 2005

Illustrative campus framework showing potential uses.

The planning firm Cooper, Robertson and Partners has prepared an interim report for the Harvard community that proposes preliminary ideas and options for a basic campus and urban framework in Allston. The report is being shared at the request of President Lawrence H. Summers to facilitate conversations in the coming months among the University community, the City of Boston and the Allston neighborhood.

"Over the centuries Harvard has grown and matured as a university. Throughout time, however, the University has remained one community, joined by the commitment to excellence in teaching and research that is our core mission. Harvard in Allston will maintain this tradition. It will be a multifaceted and completely integral extension of the University and its work," said President Summers.

"We have an extraordinary opportunity to enhance the size and scope of our traditional endeavors, to broaden our intellectual horizons, and to enrich Boston and Allston by the thoughtful improvement of our common space. I look forward to continuing our discussions with the Harvard community, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and the Allston community as we embark upon this shared endeavor."

The planning framework process begun by Cooper, Robertson and Partners in this report will be ongoing, and will be integrated over time with efforts in academic planning, fund raising, and cost analysis. The overall strength and health of the University will determine the ultimate pace of development and growth in Allston.

The interim report contains choices that could help create a green, vibrant and welcoming addition to the Harvard campus.

Read related Gazette articles in the special Allston: Interim Report 2005 The Allston Initiative Web site is located at www.allston.harvard.edu. The Allston Initiative is committed to keeping the Harvard community and its neighbors informed about what is going on in Allston. Visit the site to learn more about Allston, current events, and the vision for Harvard's development.

This Allston of tomorrow could enhance the social and economic vitality of the area. Trucks and traffic could make room for scientists, neighborhood residents, professors of education, public health and business, and graduate and undergraduate students creating a vibrant engaging intellectual community. Asphalt on existing industrial properties owned by Harvard could be transformed to landscaped lawns, walkways, and bike paths. New academic buildings that respect Harvard's architectural traditions while embracing design innovation could create a campus character compatible with the surrounding community. Arts and culture could draw campus and community to new shared places and open spaces.

"We are involved in a process to show what is possible," said David McGregor, managing director for Cooper, Robertson and Partners. "Our role is to provide the University with physical choices and ultimately to give Harvard a planning framework to guide decisions going forward."

"It is clear that Allston will be a success if it is an extension of the University, not an enclave unto itself," added McGregor. "There is so much potential here, potential to enrich the academic community that connects with the existing campus, potential to create vibrant space that the University and neighborhood share."

The ideas presented include a variety of infrastructure improvements and transportation possibilities that better link areas of Harvard's campus, potential new river crossings, pedestrian and bicycle paths, and recommendations for open space and public places that can be shared with the Allston neighborhood.

The report also presents site concepts for the academic options that were developed by the Allston Faculty Task Forces last year.

Cooper, Robertson and Partners was hired in 2004 not to design buildings, but to develop a strategic physical framework plan for Harvard's Allston land that will accommodate the University's academic aspirations and needs over at least the next 50 years. When completed, the framework will include a street and block plan, open space and landscape layout, proposed transportation system improvements and a necessary infrastructure network, potential building locations, and it will present appropriate intersections for shared activities between the University and the North Allston community.

The consultants have spent the past year analyzing information and listening to thoughts and concerns about future development from a range of audiences, including the University, Mayor Menino and the City of Boston, and the North Allston community. The Master Planning Advisory Committee of faculty, administrators and students has been meeting monthly to advise University leadership on planning issues and to guide the Cooper planning team to ensure preliminary planning is in sync with academic needs and aspirations.

The Cooper planning team report envisions a number of potential improvements to transportation and offers ideas for enhancing quality of life.

A program vision to guide next phase of planning

In order to test the preliminary framework elements explored in the report, the Cooper team used a set of academic planning assumptions drawn from 1) discussions among Schools and departments, 2) the new recommendations proposed by the Science and Technology Task Force this spring pointing to science as an early priority, and 3) previous planning, including the ideas and recommendations of Allston faculty task forces on science and technology, undergraduate life, professional schools, culture, housing and transportation presented last year.

The assumptions do not represent a set plan. They reflect a potential first phase program elements for Allston intended to facilitate ongoing planning discussions among the Harvard community. The assumptions are also a tool to help the consultants consider the long-range potential for Harvard's Allston land and possible phasing strategies. The possible building program identified in the report includes:

• two 500,000 square foot science buildings

• new sites for the School of Public Health and Graduate School of Education and room for them to grow

• four undergraduate houses along the river

• new and expanded athletic facilities

• graduate housing coupled with community housing to help the University meet its overall goal of housing 50 percent of graduate students and to help the Schools meet their individual housing goals, while relieving pressure on the local housing market

• an undergraduate student center

• a graduate student center

• spaces for cultural activities, including museums and theaters to complement and supplement activities in Cambridge

• a conference center

• retail stores that create a place where campus and neighborhood intersect and

• support services, such as security, administrative support space, child care and parking

As academic, cultural, residential and civic needs are further clarified and defined through ongoing consultation, the University can draw on its land parcels in Allston to accommodate those needs. According to the report, much of the land is encumbered with railroad easements and deed restrictions. While this poses a challenge for development over the long term, the report notes that early projects can be accommodated on land that is readily available after city and state permitting requirements are met.

The report concludes that maximum flexibility in use, configuration and subdivision of building parcels is needed as Harvard anticipates program aspirations and space needs over the next several decades.

The report suggests four options for improving transportation.

Transportation: Improved connectivity for Harvard's campus

"Good connectivity is such a vital part of the success of development in Allston ..." Cooper, Robertson and Partners Interim Report (p. 10)

Harvard's campus, including Allston, would be tied together by a transportation system that could include changed roadway patterns, increased shuttle or other mass transit service, and enhanced pedestrian and bicycle pathways.

The options developed by Cooper, Robertson and Partners not only seek to bring different parts of Harvard's campus closer together, but also to bring improvements to the ways people in the community enter and exit Allston.

One option would create a new access from the I-90 ramp at the end of a new "Allston Boulevard," allowing many to bypass completely the congested intersection at the Doubletree Hotel, where Cambridge Street, Soldiers Field Road, and an off-ramp to the Massachusetts Turnpike all converge.

David McGregor said that, with other proposed roadway changes, such a plan would amount to a "breakthrough" in terms of local transportation issues.

The interim report also presented several options to tie Harvard in Allston to Cambridge , as well as to the Longwood Medical Area.

In the short term, the report explores easing traffic along the corridor formed by JFK Street, the Larz Anderson Bridge and North Harvard Street by eliminating parking along North Harvard Street, which would clear the way for improved shuttle transportation and dedicated bicycle paths.

These changes, as well as proposed enhancements to the Larz Anderson Bridge, would add two travel lanes and also provide expanded pedestrian areas.

In the longer term, however, the report notes that other transit solutions will have to be sought.

As the Allston campus grows, it will be important to be able to move more people more quickly between Cambridge and other parts of the area.

The interim report describes several options, including refurbishing the Weeks Footbridge to carry pedestrian, bicycle and shuttle traffic or possibly adding a new river crossing in the form of a new bridge or a tunnel.

With foot and bicycle traffic an important part of any college's life, the progress report suggests dedicated bicycle paths, separated from walking paths, to facilitate transport back and forth between Allston and Cambridge. An underground network of tunnels might provide all-weather passage among Allston buildings.

Better transportation to Harvard's Longwood campus is also critical, the report says, and Allston's location will allow for faster, more direct shuttle service than is currently offered from Cambridge, an important factor in tying together medical and public health functions that could potentially be located at both campuses. As preferred transportation concepts are identified and considered, the report notes, public participation, including neighborhood, City and regulatory agencies, would be required.

University science subject of faculty task force recommendations A faculty task force highlighted scientific needs and opportunities at Harvard, recommending in April that the University support fundamental scientific and global health initiatives. The Harvard University Task Force on Science and Technology engaged Harvard scientists in a discussion regarding the future of science at a time of rapid change. The task force also found that strengthening current scientific research programs is critical to maintain a strong core of scientific activities. The report recommended locating initiatives on the Environment, on Quantum Science and Engineering, a portion of the initiative on Systems Neuroscience, and a portion of the Engineering initiative in the North Yard in Cambridge. The task force recommended that Chemical Biology, Innovative Computing, Stem Cells, Systems Biology, parts of the Engineering initiative, Microbial Sciences, the Origins of Life, Global Neglected Diseases, Global Health, Quantitative Health and Social Science, and Health Policy all be located in Allston during three phases of development. The report recommends initiatives on Translational Immunology and Translational Biomedicine take space in Longwood, on the Massachusetts General Hospital campuses, or at other locations. The task force report can be found on the Provost's Office Web page at www.provost.harvard.edu/reports.

Transformation: From truck yards to green campus

"We can help Allston become a more vital, environmentally friendly and inviting place by creating safe and pleasant pedestrian and bicycle paths while minimizing additional traffic; using less water and recycling more; creating diverse, abundant, and publicly accessible green spaces; optimizing utility systems; and improving air quality by minimizing emissions of greenhouse gases, particulates, and toxic chemicals." (p. 16)

Harvard's Allston land today consists of a series of parcels, some contiguous, others not, that are largely industrial and paved with asphalt. The report imagines academic buildings framed by landscaped lawns, new open spaces and interweaving pathways for pedestrians and bicycles that connect campus and community to the river and beyond.

A canal and pond system in the Athletics area is one idea proposed by the planning team.

This concept would handle surface water and ease the burden on city utilities while improving athletics fields and Smith Field and providing a place where students and neighborhood residents can skate and play hockey in the wintertime and walk beside during other seasons. The report proposes a number of possible elements for the Allston campus open space system.

"Allston needs more and improved green spaces, and better access to them," the report notes. (p. 13)

Twenty-foot wide pedestrian and bike systems along North Harvard could help keep pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles apart. Bridge enhancements along the Larz Anderson Bridge, such as an expanded pedestrian area, shelters and kiosks, would improve the walk between Cambridge and Allston; the Cooper team proposes several options for consideration.

Additional traffic lights or even depressing portions of Soldiers Field Road would provide better access to the river, a valuable benefit to Allston and Cambridge residents, as well as to the Harvard community. The Allston development would also result in additional landscaping along neighborhood streets, offering an improved boulevard-like experience for area neighbors and the academic community.

The Allston development will adhere to the Harvard-wide sustainability principles adopted last fall. Those principles commit the University to enhancing the health of surrounding ecosystems, as well increasing energy efficiency and minimizing emissions of greenhouse gases, among others.

Common space: Where University and neighborhood meet

"One of Harvard's goals is to create a neighborhood that, north of I-90, is a place where the institution and the community meet in a way that enhances both." (p. 15)

The report notes the potential for common spaces in Harvard's future development and highlights the benefit this would bring to both campus and neighborhood. It notes, however, that this will require taking care.

"Care must be taken at the seams: where the residential community and the Harvard lands meet," the report notes (p. 17) "there must be a complementary relationship between today's and tomorrow's buildings to enhance the beauty and vitality of both the University campus and the North Allston Neighborhood."

Lower-scale buildings and uses such as graduate student and Harvard-affiliated housing, as well as community housing, could be the kinds of campus edge development that would be compatible with the North Allston community.

The Allston development would also include common spaces for campus and community. The report envisions places where civic, cultural and retail activities engage both students and neighbors.

Housing for both graduate students and community residents could also provide common space. Barry's Corner at North Harvard Street and Western Avenue and McNamara Concrete are noted as logical locations for uses that serve both the University and the community, and traffic along Windom Street could be quieted.

Concepts similar to these in the report have been the subject of discussions during the development of the North Allston Neighborhood Strategic Plan, a recent community-based planning effort between the North Allston neighborhood, the City of Boston and Harvard.

In the report, the Cooper team models various options for Barry's Corner including three options for cultural activities and others for academic buildings that would include retail or community space at the ground level.

Because discussions are ongoing between Charlesview Apartments and Harvard about the possible sale of the Charlesview property to Harvard, some options consider the site as Harvard's property and others do not.

Robust consultation within the University community and with Harvard's Allston neighbors and Boston's leadership will help move forward Harvard's future campus plans as all parties embark on a shared future.

Next steps: Using knowledge gained to advance planning

The Cooper, Roberston progress report closes with a series of potential academic and related program priorities that should be addressed broadly in consultation and discussions during the next phase of study beginning in the fall:

• locations and sizes for the science programs

• locations and sizes for SPH and GSE

• locations and specifications for cultural uses

• locations for civic, retail and support uses

• locations for undergraduate houses along the river

• locations for graduate housing

• preferred new river crossings

• possible depression of parts of Soldiers Field Road

• whether major academic areas should feel like a "Yard" or should be a collection of individual buildings within an urban grid

• architectural vocabulary as Allston evolves